Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition Announces 2025 Candidates 

70 first round candidates have been named by the competition, which will run from May 5 to June 11, 2025 

Alternating between different instrument categories each year, the Queen Elisabeth Competition has announced 70 candidates for its 21st edition dedicated to piano. 

This year’s candidates were selected from 289 applicants aged between 18 and 31 via a video pre-selection round at the end of January. 

The first round of the competition will be held from May 5–10, 2025, at the Flagey performance venue in Belgium. 

The 2025 piano candidates are: 

• Jinwoo Bae, 
• Robert Bily
• Rachel Breen
• Alice Burla
• Valère Burnon
• Yangrui Cai
• Kuan-Wei Chen
• Jiarui Cheng
• Zhengyang Fan
• Yi-Chen Feng
• Jacopo Giovannini
• Samuel Glicklich
• Francesco Granata
• Yungyung Guo
• Arthur Hinnewinkel
• Wataru Hisasue
• Curtis Phill Hsu
• Ron Maxim Huang
• Bogang Hwang 
• Miguel Iglesias Lista 
• Mirabelle Kajenjeri 
• Masaya Kamei 
• Alexander Kashpurin 
• Uladzislau Khandohi 
• Chaewon Kim 
• Dong Ju Kim 
• Jun Ho Kim 
• Song Hyeon Kim 
• Sunah Kim 
• Emin Kiourktchian 
• Shiori Kuwahara 
• Giorgio Lazzari 
• Jaeyoung Lee 
• Tiantuo Li 
• Daumants Liepins 
• Denis Linnik 
• Philipp Lynov 
• Jonathan Mak
• Nicolas Margarit 
• Nikola Meeuwsen 
• Aidan Mikdad 
• Nathalia Milstein 
• Jiaxin Min 
• Seongwoo Moon 
• Yumeka Nakagawa 
• Robert Neumann 
• Georgijs Osokins 
• Shion Ota 
• Evren Ozel 
• Jinhyung Park 
• Djordje Radevski 
• Davide Ranaldi 
• Changyong Shin 
• Youl Sun 
• Yutong Sun
• Sergey Tanin 
• Hao Tian 
• Elizaveta Ukrainskaia 
• Roeland Vermeulen 
• Yiheng Wang 
• Jiacheng Xiong 
• Yuanfan Yang 
• Fangzhou Ye 
• Suah Ye 
• Yuki Yoshimi 
• Seho Young 
• Hehuan Yu 
• Yali Zaken 
• Tom Zalmanov 
• Bo Zhang

They were selected by an international jury comprising François-Frédéric Guy, Daejin Kim, Momo Kodama, Julien Libeer, Jan Michiels, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, and Boyan Vodenitcharov, led by jury president Gilles Ledure. 

The first prize winner will receive the Queen Elisabeth International Grand Prize (Queen Mathilde Prize) with €25,000. The First Laureate will also receive several solo recitals and go on a tour of Asia and Brazil alongside the Second Laureate. 

Second prize is €20,000; third prize is €17,000; and fourth prize is €12,500. The fifth and sixth prizes will be awarded with €10,000 and €8,000, respectively. 

Additionally €1,000 will be given to each of the 12 candidates in the semi-finals who have not progressed to the final round. More concert opportunities will see the six unranked laureates give a recital and the six ranked laureates perform with an orchestra. The laureates will also tour Belgium. 

The awards ceremony will be held on June 3, 2025, at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. Jury members of the public competition rounds will be announced at a later date.

More on each of the first-round candidates can be viewed here.